Mandela Effect? Are you a Jeff Buckley or Cocteau Twins fan? If yes, were you aware of the intense romance they had in the mid-90s? A fan would have been aware. I cannot say I am the most encyclopedic fan of any band, but I loved both of those artists in the late 90s. Yet, I was not aware of their relationship until a few days ago (it’s 2017). I find this unusual (unlikely?). During the Napster days (2000) I was on a quest to learn as much biographical information I could about my favorite recording artists. I would download copious amounts of music and research bands thoroughly on AllMusic. There are few artists that I hold in higher regard than Buckley or Cocteau Twins. This is music that connects to the spirit and there is no equal.

How could I not know such a titanic fact? I heard about this via The Higherside Chats’ guest Chris Knowles (https://www.thehighersidechatsplus.com/chris-knowles-song-to-the-siren/). He has done a thorough investigation uncovering myriads of esoteric, synchronistic facts that connect Tim Buckley, Elizabeth Fraser and Jeff Buckley. In short, Tim Buckley (father of Jeff) wrote a beautiful and haunting song called “Song to the Siren” in the 60s, which was later covered by Elizabeth Fraser as a guest of This Mortal Coil (4AD house band) in the late 80s.

From Wikipedia: In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.

No voice in modern times (or possibly ever) has embodied the archetype of siren more than Fraser’s. Fraser and Jeff Buckley had a brief, but intense romantic affair in the mid-90s. Both were enamored with each other’s voices. Jeff Buckley died in a drowning accident in 1997.

From Wikipedia: While recording the song (Teardrop with Massive Attack) on 29 May 1997, she found out that her once-close friend, Jeff Buckley, had drowned. “That was so weird … I’d got letters out and I was thinking about him. That song’s kind of about him – that’s how it feels to me anyway.”

Chris Knowles details an unbelievable, yet factual, amount of coincidences in the obscure lyrics of Fraser’s Cocteau Twins music that illustrate details of Buckley’s untimely death.

OK, so that’s all really creepy and weird. But here’s why I’m writing this. I HAD NO IDEA Fraser and Buckley were connected in any way until a few days ago. Yet I’m a fan of both since the mid-late 90s and I SHOULD have known. My good friend who introduced me to Cocteau Twins in the 90s also didn’t know anything about this. What is going on?

I’ve been exploring Simulation Theory for several months. I actually wrote a booklet and just completed a YouTube series on navigating the simulation called Truth Cypher. My project is rooted in the idea that in this (non-computer) simulation conflicting events can be simultaneously accurate. If you’ve heard of the Mandela Effect, where large groups of people remember historical events differently than other groups, it’s exactly that (look this up if you’re not familiar with the concept.)

I’m wondering if the Fraser/Buckley connection is a particularly aggressive manifestation of the Mandela Effect. To be convinced one way or the other, I’d want long-time fans from the 90s to come forward and indicate that they knew about this romance in the 90s (or even early 00s) and have held it in memory since. For my friend and I, this is completely knew information. But it’s of a significantly more intense level than the more humorous Mandela Effect manifestations like the Berenstain/Berenstein Bears naming. (Yes, I’m in the control group that remembers it being spelled Berenstein Bears.)

If this is Mandela Effect, my conjecture is that this strange, compelling and mythologically perfect narrative has only recently appeared in consensual simulation memory. When I watched the Jeff Buckley documentary I got a similar feeling in some scenes than I do from media events like the Las Vegas mass shooting or pick any media terror event. Basically, the narrative is very simplistic and trite. Something feels false. Even Elizabeth Fraser’s performance of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren seems script perfect. Her vocals on that rack are unusually conventional, which is unlike anything else I’ve heard her do. However, the rough cut duet of Jeff and Elizabeth singing “All Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun” is sublime. It doesn’t change the fact that it’s shocking I had no idea this amazing collaboration existed.

Quantum theory has found that reality is observer dependent. In practical terms, we are the co-creators of consensual reality. Regarding Fraser/Buckley, it’s tempting to think the likes of CERN scientists are reprogramming reality and manifesting instances of the Mandela Effect. But perhaps in the multiverse simulation we (we as in consensual reality we) wanted it to be this way. Maybe even I collaborated in merging this alternate dimension with the one I’d been living in. The narrative simultaneously feels wrong, corny –yet wished for (predictable) like a fairy tale. Maybe most serious fans of these artists have their meeting in memory and I’m in the odd minority of people who’s universe didn’t include their story.

Even more intriguingly (to me) I am inserted into this romance as an observer who affects reality. This is when personal synchronicities with the Buckley/Fraser Mandela Effect harmonize with their story in an unlikely way.

My grandfather died in January of 2015. My daughter, our second child, was born that year on my grandfather’s birthday, November 17. Jeff Buckley was born on November 17. My grandfather was a kind of merman, a great coach and teacher of swimming. My daughter loves swimming. Her name means ocean. She has a very powerful voice. She’s capable of playfully screaming at such a high pitch it creates intense, physical vibrations you can really feel. Like a Siren. Tim Buckley was born on February 14. My wife and I had our first date on Valentine’s Day. Cupid hit hard that day. The archetypal mythological gods seem to be threading me into their story.

My favorite rock band is Roxy Music. One of their albums is called The Siren.

More recently, Bryan Ferry recorded a cover of Tim Buckley’s song to the Siren.

There is no randomness in computing, only complexity that gives the appearance of. In the simulation, coincidences and synchronicities are never random. Furthermore, we use these occurrences to create the narratives of our lives. Can you see how this works? How reality is created? How we are doing it? I’m at my limits to articulate the technicalities of this. It is not done analytically. It is done apart from time. It happens within the intuitive, feminine, spiritual side of the dual mind. The analytical, material, action oriented male side of mind translates the phenomena into experience and story. Yet the meaning can only truly be derived by the former.

When one is creating a website, it is intended as a full experience. I kind of virtual sculpture where one can navigate and reliably find their way back “home.” It’s an ok metaphor for an intelligent (simulated?) universe because, left untended, both virtual and material words eventually descend into natural states of chaos. Here’s the the thing about websites. The designer will continue making adjustments long after launch. Usually these tweaks are imperceptible to the visiter. Sometimes they’re significant enough to subtly affect the user’s experience, but without them consciously noticing what is different. Sometimes these website changes are more drastic. Perhaps a menu link to a favorite site section gets pulled down, making scores of content inaccessible to the user. Maybe the skin of the site completely changes giving off a completely different emotionally visual impression. Does this not sound like our universe? For thousands of years people lived in a flat realm with a mythical dome above. Then, suddenly, the program altered and they found themselves in a complex, different universe. In our simulation, there could be intelligences unconstrained by our concept of time and space that are capable of altering events at any point. History—the past—might be as malleable as the future. This is because our material universe is nested within time agnostic conscious awareness. While I don’t believe we live in a computer programmed simulation, I think the multiverse works very much like one. I believe we are the programmers of the universe. And I believe we are reprogramming the world—backwards and forwards.